


43 word search

by FoxyPoxy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Prompt Fic, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:13:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24761368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxyPoxy/pseuds/FoxyPoxy
Summary: A writing exercise I'm doing. Please comment on any thoughts or ideas while reading this. I want to get better at writing.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Female Character, Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Male Character & Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. After School

**Author's Note:**

> Search words:
> 
> Babysit, Band, Baseball, Chores, Craft, Dance, Football, Games, Guitar, Gymnastics, Homework, Internet, Library, Mall, Movie, Paint, Read, Scouts, Sew, Shop, Skate, Soccer, Swim, Television, Tutoring, and Volunteer.

Zek was already exhausted, and it was only Monday. He had the closing shift the night before which wasn't helping him at all. He was yawning more than listening to the teacher. Not that it was any different from his usual Monday. Once the teacher gave them book work Zek found that he was just staring at the paper. He had to shake himself awake a few times while doing the work.

“Woah! Look at that yawn” Zek’s best friend Brandan snicked at him. Zek would get him back latter for making fun of him for now he just flipped him off. Which only caused the other boy to laugh at him. How the other was such a morning person was beyond him. He was struggling to get through the homework that had already been assigned to him. Brandon would help him out sometimes if he was having a hard time keeping up with it though. Brandon would watch his siblings or let him copy his homework if the situation was dire. He didn’t have time to do it at home when he was having what felt like 40-hour workdays. Brandon wouldn't ask too many questions about why he needed help. He liked working with kids anyway. Zek had told him that he should think about becoming a teacher. Brandon would end up thinking long and hard about that.

It wasn’t Zek's fault that he was born in a poor family. It wasn't his parent's fault either. His parents were doing the best that they could money wise. It wasn’t his fault that he was born into a six-person household. That would be his mom's fault though, She wanted to have a big family. She was an orphan after her parents were caught abusing drugs. She loved the big family atmosphere that foster homes tried to make. She got what she wanted they all loved each other, and he wouldn’t change a thing. Sure they would bicker and fight from time to time but they loved each other. He was just tired of having to work so hard if he wanted to go to a shop around, the movies, or any of his friend’s baseball games. He and his parents tried to give the younger ones got to do fun things. Zeks’s little siblings were James 13 years old, Mark 10 years old, and baby Grace 5 years old. He was the oldest being 17 years old almost 18.

Zek had been driving since his 15th birthday and got his driving license the day he turned 16. He was happy to be able to help out more around the. house and not have to walk everywhere. Zek would pick up Brandon on the way to school. If only to stop Brandon from getting into trouble for skating on school property. However, Brandon would bring his bored and leave it in Zek's car so he could go to the skate park right after school. After school, he would pick up James and Grace from school then babysit them for an hour before going to work himself. They would be left to their own devices for only half an hour before their dad would get home. The Grace had swim lessons that happened twice a week. While Mark had Football after school most days so their dad would pick him up on his way home. Then James was apart of a band with his friends. He played the guitar in the band. Zek had a part-time job. It wasn’t anything fancy just a fast-food cook in the mall. Other than that Zek was a little nerd. He liked to read and playing video games. His mother would take him to the library with her every weekend. His dad was more into sports, Television shows. Though most people thought that they were into soccer that was the one sport that they couldn’t get behind unless they were playing it. 

Growing up in such a diverse family it lead to them learning to befriend all kinds of people. Zek was often drifting from friend group to friend group. He never stayed in one place after something pecked his interest. Picking up any craft he thought was cool. He had taken a dance lesson, painting, sewing lessons from his mom, and volunteering. All at veering points of his life, that is. He would often drag his family or friends along with him. His best friend came from the time that he decided to give skating a try. That was the most painful month that Zek has had. He fell off the skateboard more times then he could count, but he loved every minute of it. Brandon was a friend that stayed with him through all his new hobbies.

Mark while he seemed to be a jock he liked to learn things. He looked up to his brother Zek. He thought that Zek was the coolest person he knew. Zek always had the answer to his questions and would help him look it up if he somehow didn’t know. Zek was always sharing amazing stories with him when they hung out that Mark. Mark wanted to be just like that when he was older. Mark wasn’t stupid though, he knew how hard his parents and Zek worked. Mark wanted to help so he would do any chores before or after school that he saw around the house. Mark would look up money-saving hacks on the internet all the time. He took extra classes online to try and skip grades. He was genuinely a nice guy that his teammates would go to for tutoring.

While their brother James had a different agenda. It was by far the hardest one that their family had to go through. At first, he had a hard time figuring out what he loved, and who he was. He was in gymnastics for 3 years but felt uncomfortable in his skin. It was only until a play where he had to play as a boy scout that he finally found who he was. That week was a lot of crying, and stress on his side about what he was going to do. He was only 10 at the time but it was a lot. When he finally came out to his family they were okay with him being who he was. After that Zek bought him a guitar to learn to express himself with his newfound identity. Jeanie was given a memorial and James was given a birthday party. Their parents made such a big deal about it that the party was huge. It took weeks to clean up and even then they find somethings still laying around from the party. The dollar tree had never been more helpful than that day.


	2. Chapter 2

I wasn’t prepared for this in Med school. Sure I was in the middle of my class but I wasn’t slacking. How can you be top of your class when everyone is on top of their class. Everyone wanted to help people. I was ready for patients that needed attention and the occasional emergency. I was training to be a Doctor after all. I was ready for people to hate me and love me for my work. I was ready for the sacrifices that came with the job. That sort of thing was to be expected. I was ready for car accidents with full tired nurses trying their best. The knowledge that it was only for the night that everyone was going to be okay. If there was someone that wasn’t going to make it the knowledge that we did the best that we could as a unit. I was ready to use a Gurney every so often but not every five minutes. I wasn’t ready for it to be out of use while it gets sanitized. I wasn’t ready for the almost days in a mask trying to keep people alive. I prayed to whatever God wanted to claim me that I didn’t have to hear about the helipad being used to airlift people to safety.

I wasn’t ready for this. I wasn’t prepared for all the blood and death that I was going to see. Med school made it sound as if we would have bad days not months at a time. To be fair how could they? A pandemic and a fire that is raging across the country. How could that be fair to expect them to know about it? Who would be able to foresee this? Even in all of the movies, the end of the world came faster than this. I learned all about the world around us. I knew that it could be dangerous. Visitors that knew what was wrong with their children because they googled it. I knew that I would have to talk someone out of using their technology because it was inappropriate or we needed the electricity. I knew that people were stupid sometimes. I was ready to have to explain to people why they should only use sex toys as playthings. Or why a girl who said she was a virgin was pregnant.

I was ready for silly stories, new friends, and life experiences. I was ready to have cute stories about people that I was glad to meet. I knew that I was going to never get a full night's rest again but that was fine with me. I never got a full night's rest anyway. Insomnia ran in my family so it didn’t matter much to me. Being a hospitality staff wouldn’t change that. It would just make it easier for me to get to work when they needed me.

Now though I never left the hospital it felt. Other than the time where I needed to leave. I got to eat and pass out from all the stress that the job created. The waiting rooms went from almost empty thanks to the pandemic to full thanks to the fire. It wasn’t fair to see all these people in pain and suffering. Checking the vital signs of all patients to make sure they were still with us. People with babies sitting on the floor and in chairs in the ICU hoping that their baby was safe. All the files were lost to the fire meaning we had to be extra careful with the patients. We didn’t want to cause more harm than good. Computers were melting to the point of no return so those records were lost for every.

“Jay, you okay?” Mark asked, taking a seat next to me. I was resting my eyes for a moment because I was almost at my mandatory mark. I was so drained from all the monitors beeping, the swarms of talking from the wards. It was almost a lullaby for me.

“Yeah” I sighed knowing that he wouldn’t believe me. We never believed each other now. With the number of hours, we were working it was rough already. With all the beds full and the Cafatiera running out of food and coffee due to the number of people. Let's not even talk about reception and admissions. They have been so busy they might as well have never had a single moment to themselves. 

“Were both off in a minute, I have a question for ya… Can I crash at you?” Mark asked, making me think for a minute. Then I remembered that Mark had a family that was in the fire. The ones he could get in contact with were in another city having fled away from the fire. He was probably really freaked out and didn’t want to be alone.

“Of course dude,” I said, moving to stand. I heard my back crack in six places. I’m not sure if it hurt or felt good at this point. “I’m just waiting on the Chart for Ms. Susan Col. She had an MRI today and I need to know the result of I won't sleep”

“Sounds good. I’ll grab our stuff. What's your code?” Mark asked standing up. I told him it was the date I started working here. He nodded and left so that I could wait on the results. She had been waiting for the result for weeks now. It was delayed thanks to the fire already. I told her I would get the results today and I was going to make good on my promise. I needed to know how to help her. It came moments later through the computer. She was cleared of what we tested her for. Now we just had to figure out what was wrong. This was both good and bad for us. It meant that there was less that could be the cause of her illness, but it also meant that we still didn't know what was wrong. Meaning that she would be sick longer then what I would like.

I left the resting room to almost run into an orderly that was on her way to clean one of the neurology rooms. I thanked her for her hard work before taking the elevator to the lower level. She just got in for the day so she had a long shift ahead of her. She told me to have a nice day before the doors closed. My coat was starting to get a bit big. It was getting in my way more often now than it had been in the past. I knew that my telemetry was changing due to my new daily life. I was going to have to try to buy more protein items when I went shopping. I wonder if Mark would mind if we stopped for food on the way home. He would probably be up for it. I would be setting up my favorite restaurant to send food when we wake up around noon tomorrow. It would be nice eating with someone else. Of course, Mark and I weren’t even out of the building yet when we heard an emergence announcement going off. Even if we wanted to help we were just too tired and would make mistakes. This was one of the things I hated the most is having to turn and leave because I can’t function much longer. While there were people needing help that I could offer. It hurt so much but we had replacements and they were capable Doctors at the ready. There was no need for me to be here any longer.


End file.
